-USA – Eaglesclaw Academy*-

Located in Massachusetts, this school welcomes
American and Canadian witches from all over North America, as well as some
students of other nationalities. Modelled on Hogwarts, it is similar as the
founders wished to create an experience just as good as the English school but
for American witches and wizards. The current head of school is Liana May, a renowned charms professor.

Founding:

The Eaglesclaw Academy was founded by four American friends
who had been students at Hogwarts and wished to create an American school to
unite all witches and wizards of their nationality. It was founded just after
the American Revolutionary War and opened in the autumn term of 1786. Like in
Hogwarts, the four houses are named after the founders, who were  Gretchen Grizzlheart, Madora Merdock, Leopold
Lammasador and Sebastien Snowbeark. The four founders do not haunt the castle
but all have paintings in the common rooms of their houses and also one each in
the head’s office.

The running of the school was handed over to sisters Siobham
and Sophie Ketra in 1850 after Lammasador, the last to go, died a peaceful
death of simple old age.

More information on the Four Founders:

Gretchen Grizzleheart:Grizzleheart believed in making the most of nature and
living off the land influenced by her mother’s Native American background
(Delaware Indians) the Lenape. Grizzleheart’s Father was a missionary with the
first Great Awakening movement led by Jonathan Edwards. She was known as “the
mother of the motherless” because she made a habit of adopting orphaned witches
and wizards and eventually established an orphanage, which is now the location
of Eaglesclaw. She had a pet bear named Reginald Fuzzybottom that accompanied her
everywhere and who remained with her to the end of her days. Grizzleheart was
particularly gifted in the arts of potions, herbology and care of magical
creatures.

Leopold Lammasador: Lammasador fought alongside George Washington during
the American Revolutionary War. He was gifted in battle strategy, highly
intelligent and believed in careful planning as the key to success. Lammasador
Spoke a total of 32 different languages (from both the wizarding and muggle
world) he valued reading and studiousness above all else. He also established
the first American Wizarding School classes of History of Magic and Defense
against the Dark Arts and taught both subjects during his time as partial head
of school.

Madora Merdock:Hailing from Spain, Madora was an avid traveler and
adventurer, she traveled the world in a ship she commanded and saw most of the
globe, both known and uncharted. She loved America particularly and eventually
fell in love with and married the famous American wizard Connor Merdock.
Connnor Merdock, of course, attended the Continental Congress and whose name is
in invisible wizarding ink on the Declaration of Independence (a copy of which
the British Ministry of Magic was none-too-pleased to receive) indicating the
Colonial Wizards as supporting their muggle counterparts in the struggle for
independence. Merdock wanted her knowledge of wizard orienteering, arithmancy
and astronomy to be shared with future generations, and used the immense wealth
amassed from her travels to help turn Gretchen’s orphanage into the first
American School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was also very fascinated with
divination and world mythologies. She believed that children learn best when
encouraged to explore their own paths through travel and adventure.

Sebastien Snowbeak: Snowbeak became an animagus outlaw in Europe,
preferring to live a solitary life hunting, writing philosophy and poetry and
communing with nature. He believed in the inherent goodness of both people and
nature. He eventually sought passage to the New World and influenced a muggle
by the name of Thomas Paine before connecting with his old friends,
Grizzleheart and Lammasador from Hogwarts. In the New World, Snowbeak was a
successful fur trader and businessman and an avid writer.

His Favorite place to sit and read / write was the Common Foyer at
Eaglesclaw. Snowbeak’s work eventually became very influential in the
establishment of the New American U.S. Department of Magic in Washington, DC.
In particular, his belief that society and its institutions ultimately corrupt
the purity of the individual helped establish looser laws around American
Animagi and helping his friends establish Eaglesclaw.

Snowbeak had faith that children are at their best when truly
“self-reliant” and independent. He believed that it is only from such real
individuals that true community could be formed. He was particularly skilled at
Quidditch, charms and transfiguration.

Further History:

Eaglesclaw does not participate much in issues of
other problems, though they are close to Hogwarts in alliance and there are a
rumours some sort of tournament between the schools may soon take place.
Famously and giving the school a bad reputation for a decade or so, a wizard by
the name of John Wilkes Booth attended the school from 1849 to 1855, being
expelled in his sixth year as he seemed to go insane with rage and attempted to
stab a co-student in a debate on the views of slavery.

Booth was for the south and disliked those who
supported the North so much that he went on to assassinate president Abraham
Lincoln in 1865 after being released from his ward in a wizarding hospital
years before before. Booth was left to be dealt with by muggles after a team of
Aurors found him and broke his wand as a punishment for his terrible deeds before
informing the muggle authorities. Boothe ended up being shot by a union
soldier.

On a lighter note, many notable witches and wizards of
the research field attended Eaglesclaw and new celebrities come forth all the
time. It is an esteemed school and one of the leading wizarding education
institutions of the world.

While Eaglesclaw did not participate in the struggles
against Lord Voldemort, they helped the Canadians in the 1950s in the war
against a team of purist Inuit wizards and witches that attempted to purge the
north of muggle-borns. They have also had their own struggles within the
school.

Education:

As mentioned previously,
there are four houses for students to be sorted into upon arrival. Like
Hogwarts, a hat is used for the sorting, though it is said to be made of deep
purple silk rather than old leather. Details of the four houses are below:

House Grizzleheart:

Qualities: Strong, loyal,
caring, fierce

Founder: Gretchen
Grizzleheart

Colours: Green and Silver

Emblem: Roaring Bear with
paws outstretched facing forwards on mint green shield (below)

Element: Earth

House Lammasador:

Qualities: Noble, Valiant,
Intelligent, Resilient

Founder: Leopold Lammasador

Colours: Red and Gold

Emblem: Winged Lion facing
left side-on on red and yellow patterned quarter shield 

Element: Fire

House Merdock:

Qualities: Adventurous, Brave, Enthusiastic, Optimistic

Founder: Madora Merdock

Colours: Blue and Bronze

Emblem: Merwoman surveying
globe upon blue and lilac patterned shield.

Element: Water

House Snowbeak:

Qualities: Wise, Patient,
Clever, Resourceful

Founder: Sebastien Snowbeak

Colours: Grey and white

Emblem: Snowy owl landing
on title on a grey, white, and black patterned quarter shield.

Element: Air

Students at the Eaglesclaw Academy
study core classes till third year then choose electives as done at Hogwarts.
They take O.W.L.s in their fifth year and N.E.W.T.s in their seventh.

Setting:

Eaglesclaw Academy is located
somewhere in the mountains of the 
county New Berkshire. The castle is apparently hidden in a large valley
in the eastern part of the mountain range and the surrounding countryside is
said to be breathtakingly simple but classic area, with rolling green hillsides
and flower pastures.

The building itself is a vast castle
like Hogwarts, with outdoor Quidditch pitches, care of magical creatures
compounds and greenhouses. There are also four notable gardens among many which
are arranged in a circle, each quarter being a different garden for each
season.

The castle itself holds a tower for
each house, each tower entrance guarded by a password only house members know
(or should know). Outside the entrance to each tower are two statues that will
turn you away if you fail to give the right password five times. Depending on
the house, these statues will be of the emblem; i.e. if it was the entrance to
House Merdock, the statues would be Mermaids.

These towers are decorated lavishly in
the house colours within and have large dormitories in which students sleep.
The common rooms all have fires that, when lighted, immediately turn the flames
the house colour, i.e. for Grizzleheart the flames would be green when the fire
was lit. Paintings in the houses tend to be of people related to the house, and
in every common room above the mantelpiece there hangs a picture of that houses
founder in pride of place. The pictures do not talk but observe quietly and
report to the Headmistress if anything is awry.

There are also many mysterious parts
of the castle, as secret passages and rooms can be found everywhere by doing
something accidental. Notably there is the room of Diana Montgomery, a Merdock student
who thought she was going mad from receiving visions and hearings voices in her
head. At the age of twelve Montgomery predicted the assassination of President
John.F.Kennedy but was so terrified that her visions were starting to become
real, she locked herself in a room behind one of the Merdock statues
(accessible by pulling the right mermaid’s left fin) to try and find peace.
Having not started Divination and a little empty-headed for common sense,
Montgomery did not realize she was simply experiencing Seer visions.
Unfortunately the room is also called ‘The room of thought’, and until the occupier
answers an extremely difficult riddle, he or she cannot exit the room. As you
may guess, Diana Montgomery, in her panic, did not manage to answer the riddle
and after trying to open the stone door with sheer force, she fell and cracked
her skull on the stone floor.

A nice story…Montgomery still haunts
the room as a ghostly figure only ever trying to warn people of President
Kennedy’s upcoming assassination.

On a lighter note, there are four
ghostly protectors for each house. For house Grizzleheart the ghost is a
nobleman and wizard who lived in the castle beforehand, Lord Wilar Mace, and
fell in love with Gretchen Grizzleheart. She turned him down and he attempted,
in rage, to murder her. Luckily his attempt failed and he was sent packing, but
when he returned to the school the next time to just ‘see’ Grizzleheart, he was
bitten by a poisonous snake from the Care of Magical Creatures compound whilst
Grizzleheart was teaching. Grizzleheart, despite the man having tried to murder
her, tried to nurse him back to health. However, Mace had already been weak and
he died under her care. He returned, however, after death to make amends with
Grizzleheart and appointed himself ghostly protector of the house.

For house Lammasador, a brave woman by
the name of Elaine Frost protects the students there with more than ghostly
presence. Although she was training to be a healer during the outbreak of the
second world war, Frost left her magical ties to help the English and American
muggles as close as she could get to the battlefield, nursing at hospitals day
and night. She died in 1943 when a bomb hit the hospital where she worked in
London, but appeared at Eaglesclaw as a ghost a little time after, still
dressed in her neat nurses uniform. Frost continues to heal this day, listening
to student’s problems, giving advice on treatments and even helping out in the
infirmary.

For house Merdock, a would-be
adventurer named Izaak Merdock haunts. He was the illegitimate son of Caleb
Merdock, and was grandson to Madora Merdock. Despite Madora being horrified
that her son had fathered a bastard (in that era it was a crime), she fell in
love with the child and allowed him to attend the school. However, the boy,
though quick and clever, was weak and sickly and caught Pneumonia in the winter
holidays whilst in his father’s care. 
Izaak Merdock died before Madora could reach him, but came back as a
ghost for her sake and still protects her house this day. He appears as a
scrawny, gangly boy in a loose nightshirt and trousers, clutching a quill and
parchment. He cannot abide the infirmary due to his end with illness, and
always steers clear of the place. However, eh will help any Merdock student
with their homework and loves to read over people’s shoulders.

And lastly, for Snowbeak, is the
famous Governess Honoria Pinfold, a witch who turned away from her magical
roots due to lack of money and attempted to work as an English governess.
However, she soon found that her magic had followed her and began to get very
irritated as things started happening in front of her employers. It turned out
her previous classmates had jinxed many of her belongings, and in rage one day,
Pinfold tried to throw her trunk down the well. Unfortunately she fell herself,
and giving up, she returned to her magical roots as a ghost and now protects
her home house. She appears as a figure in wet but sensible clothes and shoes
and is always on the look out for pranks that are to be played.

There is also the school ghost, Abigail, a girl of about fifteen of sixteen. She
appears as a figure with long tendrils of silvery hair, big eyes, and a sad
smile, swathed in a long gown of white, but there is a large reddish stain on
the front of the dress. Her fingers are always moving, pleating her skirt into
tiny folds, playing with her hair, and tapping upon the wooden surface of the
stool.

Legend had it that
Abigail had died fighting off a terrible beast from the school. She had
returned as a spirit, continued her education, and become the protector of
Eaglesclaw. Apparently some of the students have adopted her as a sort of
school mascot. Abigail is always included in school festivities, and she had a
special place at the high table.

The grounds if
Eaglesclaw are extensive and hold a Quidditch pitch, stables, Care of Magical
Creature’s compound, gamekeeper’s cottage, small reservoir and Herbology
greenhouses. There are also small walk you can take through the orchards and
around the reservoir as well as monthly trips to the nearby Wizarding village
of Maron.

*Information credit to a group of Role Players in New Berkshire